Tag: OnePlus 2

AnTuTu just released its own tops of the best smartphones analyzed in the first three quarters of the year and the results are surprising. We are close to the middle of the 4th quarter already and most of the big guns or flagships for 2015 are already out. But how do they fare against each other when it comes to the most extreme tests?

On the Chinese market, Huawei became king this year, overthrowing Xiaomi for the first time. But how does the global market work? who is the top dog this year?

It appears that AnTuTu tests declare Samsung Exynos 7420 octa-core processors as the best mobile CPUs out there for now. Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processors are close by in terms of performance, but Exynos still has the upper hand.

The latest tests from July 1 to September 30 make Meizu Pro 5 the best smartphone you can have at the moment and AnTuTu don’t usually kid around. The device is at the top of this list with a score of over 76,000 points. Numbers two to five are taken by Samsung’s premium devices: the Galaxy note 5, Galaxy S6 Edge +, S6 and S6 Edge. Meizu Pro 5 is the first non-Samsung smartphone to run on an Exynos processor, which makes its position at the top of this list even more of a surprise.

In the top ten you will also find Le 1 Pro, HTC One MAX, Sony Xperia Z5, Xiaomi Mi Note Pro and OnePlus 2. It seems that 3rd quarter means good business for more than one OEM, which can only mean that you have many many options to choose from on the long run!

OxygenOS 2.1 is now live and the first to get it is OnePLus 2. This Android ROM created specifically for the One Plus phones was light on features and possibilities at launch, but things are slowly changing as updates come along on the mobile front. Today’s update brings changes to the camera, display and some obvious bug fixes.

You can check the official changelog here:

We’ve added manual mode for all you photography enthusiasts. Hope this will give you more control for capturing that perfect moment.

Raw support is now enabled for 3rd party camera apps that support this format

There’s a new color balance slider in Display for adjusting the color tone of your screen. You can now go warmer or cooler as you please.

Added Exchange support.

We fixed some issues that were causing problems with popular 3rd party apps.

Telephony service improvements so you no longer get the lag when you turn on/off airplane mode.

One of the most important changes is the manual mode on the camera, which is a huge upgrade from the standard. OnePLus 2 has a much better camera performance than the OnePlus One and OxygenOS 2.1 manages to offer it more options.

Now, users will be able to get into photography and they should get RAW support in third-party camera apps too (some reports suggest issues with this, officials are working on it). The update also brings in some color balance sliders on your pics. The OTA started today and it will reach all OnePLus 2 devices by tomorrow.

Motorola Moto X Play is finally out and we can tell you all about it. It was launched in India where it sells for 18,499 rupees, which makes it the cheapest phone with a 21MP camera and the promise of at least 25 hours of battery. The device looks pretty good and has very interesting specs for its price.

Moto X Play

The new Moto X will be one of the first devices to get Android M when it comes out, as Motorola officials admitted in an interview. The older Moto X versions will be left behind as time goes by.

Moto X Play: what is it all about?

This smartphone is actually the little brother of Moto X Style, as it takes everything from the device and shrinks it up a bit to match the price. It has a 5.5-inch Full HD screen at 403ppi and it packs a Snapdragon 615 processor plus an Adreno 405 GPU.

The biggest difference from the Moto X Style device is the slightly bigger screen of 5.7-inch Quad HD at 1440 x 2560 pixels, but it is accompanied by the better processor as well.

That being said, let’s get down to business to what Moto X Play is all about:

Moto X Play will be available in black and white versions with a twist we will talk more about. When it comes to customizing the look of your device, it is all rather clean and clear because you can only choose from a white or black front, and a different set of brightly colored panels with eight different trim finishes. Gone are the days when you could choose three bright colors to clad your smartphone in at the same time… at least for now.

The battery is worth mentioning twice because it is a very large cell advertised as a power-plant that allows you to use your smartphone for at least 30 hours before having to charge it again.

The device is aimed at the mid-range market and it could compete well with OnePlus 2, Honor 6 Plus and Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3.

The display is sharp and has vivid colors, but it also gets very bright when you need it and it goes darker when you don’t need that brightness. Even if it has an LCD display, Moto X Play does render the colors pretty well and it does not blend in colors or make tinges pop out. You can even choose between two display modes, normal and vibrant. The first pops out realistic colors whereas the second enhances vibrancy and color saturation.

Camera

If Moto X Play has something great it is striving to offer, it would be that 21MP camera. It is much bigger than the regular 13MP for the flagships of the year and it also has an f/2.0 aperture, making it, at least in theory, good at shooting in low light conditions.

Moto X Play camera

Under the camera you will find a color correlated temperature (CCT) two-tone flash that will allow you to capture soft skin tones without causing photo disruption or blow-outs. The camera is very good in capturing static images, but it does struggle somewhat when capturing pictures in movement or in low light (despite its setting).

Conclusion

Moto X Play is one of the mid-range devices you could really use on a daily basis. With a good display, great battery life and a detailed camera that works decent in all conditions, you can be sure that this Motorola device adds to the continuous improvement of Motorola’s devices.

The smartphone will sell for around $200-$300 when it launches in the US and around £300 in UK.

If we are to nitpick, we would choose the camera troubles in low light conditions, the performance issues due to the slower processor (slower compared to what flagships use) and the lack of a turbo charger (although the device has Turbo charging) as the biggest flaws for this device.

OnePlus 2 will not make its appearance in North America as soon as you thought. Even if things didn’t go that well for the Chinese manufacturer at its launch, the device is still seeing a great wave of newcomers on the invite waiting list. But the waiting is only going to get longer, at least for some regions of the world. OnePlus announced that the North American shipments of its newest device will be delayed for 2 to 3 weeks.

People who already have an invite will be able to get their OnePLus 2 smartphone starting tomorrow (August 11th), but you will have to give it a day or two for the package to physically reach your home. If you are from North America, your money is good too, but you won’t get the product as soon as the rest of the world. It will simply not ship to Canada and the US until production is back on track.

What is OnePlus 2 all about?

If you are considering getting an invite for one of these “flagship breaker” smartphones – as the Chinese are branding it – , you should know what it’s made of, right?

The device has a 5.5” Corning Gorilla Glass 4 screen at 1080 x 1920 pixels, which brings it to 401 pixel density. You get Android 5.1 with an Oxygen UI, the proprietary software OnePlus has been using since earlier this year, after the fallout with Cyanogen. There’s also a 13MP main camera with a 5MP secondary sensor in the front.

Everything is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 810 (MSM8994) SoC paired with 3 or 4 GB of RAM and 16 or 64 GB of space. There is no MicroSD card support for the device. Everything is powered by a 3000 mAh battery. Another interesting aspect of the OnePlus 2 is the microUSB v2.0 Type-C reversible connector. The smartphone accepts dual-nano SIMs.

OnePlus reveals new information regarding its Two device and it appears that we are in for an excruciating process yet again, just like it happened with the OnePlus One last year. The Chinese manufacturer will tease one piece of information after another in the hope of creating some hype for the device. AHD that’s not all, as the second One phone will also be released in stages, based on invites.

The most recent bit of information released today si also probably the most important one yet, as we now know that the OnePlus Two smartphone will be running on a Snapdragon 810 v2.1. According to the manufacturers, the second 810 processor version is supposed to run much better and thus avoid another SnapdragonGate. LG G Flex 2 and HTC One M9 are just the more famous devices to suffer from thermal throttling because of Snapdragon 810 processor. Even the Xperia Z4 with the v2.1 version has been having some reported issues in Japan.

OnePlus is planning to use graphite and thermal gel to diffuse the heat from the processor as the graphite is supposed to dissipate heat evenly. OxygenOS is supposedly fixed around the Snapdragon processor as well in order to make better use of the big and little cores alike.

The 2 will have an USB type C port, which means it will only work with some microUSB cables, but it will definitely work with all the future devices and cables out there.

The OnePlus 2 does not have an official launch date yet, but more details regarding spec will be revealed in the following weeks.

OnePlus 2 is one step closer to the shelves as we speak because the mother-company is rumored to have marked the device for launch in July. The One Plus One device was one of the most talks about smartphones last year, in part because of its terrible horrible no good invite system and also because of its spec price ratio. The device presented the spec build of a 2014 flagship at half the price.

This year’s OnePlus device is rumored to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810( the much hated easily-heating processor that broke the Internet during spring) paired with 3 GB of RAM, a 1920 x 1080p display plus a 13 MP camera and a 3300 mAh battery to power it all.

OnePlus’s co-founder Carl Pei recently said that the company is taking into consideration customer feedback from the One to improve the Two device by preparing a smoother launch with more support for customers. Moreover, the company is further developing its team and future vision by working hard on the new smartphone.

It appears that the horror of the invite system is not over as the second OnePlus flagship will be achievable via the same process as before. The new handset will also have a higher price than One ($300).

The Chinese company recently started two new contests with an interesting prize: an all-expense paid trip to the headquarters in Hong Kong. One contest is taking in to consideration a no edits photo competition on Instagram where users can upload a photo with the tag @oneplustech detailing how they were able to accomplish their photo. Officials will choose 10 photos and users will vote on the final winner.

The second contest takes place in video format and it’s supposed to be a personal confession or vlog in which people can share their OnePlus story by saying what they like about the One, what they expect from the future device and basically why THEY are the biggest One Plus fans ever. The videos will be judged on quality, originality and production. One winner will be chosen by the judges and one by the community. You can make your entry viable with THIS FORM.

This makes both contests have a total of three winners which will get a full-paid trip to Hong Kong to the OnePLus HQ where they will experience the OnePlus Two firsthand and apparently participate in a secret project.